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Leonard Bernstein Biography

Leonard Bernstein

Leonard Bernstein (/ˈbɜːrnstaɪn/ BURN-styne; August 25, 1918 – October 14, 1990) was an American composer, conductor, author, music lecturer, and pianist. He was among the first conductors born and educated in the US to receive worldwide acclaim. According to music critic Donal Henahan, he was "one of the most prodigiously talented and successful musicians in American history."

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Leonard Bernstein Quotes

When the study of the arts leads to the adoration of the formula (heaven forbid), we shall be lost.

Art, Forbid, Formula, Heaven, Lost, Study

Conducting is like making love to a hundred people at the same time.

Conducting, Making, Making Love, People, Same

I hate you, Richard Wagner. . . but I hate you on my knees.

Hate, Knees, Richard, Wagner

It is hard to think of another composer who so perfectly marries form and passion.

Form, Hard, Marries, Passion, Perfectly, Thinking

A work of art does not answer questions, it provokes them; and its essential meaning is in the tension between the contradictory answers.

Art, Essentials, Doe, Work, Tension, Provokes

From New Year's on the outlook brightens; good humor lost in a mood of failure returns. I resolve to stop complaining.

Failure, Funny, Mood, New Year, Resolve, Years

The second fiddle. I can get plenty of first violinists, but to find someone who can play the second fiddle with enthusiasm

Enthusiasm, Fiddle, Firsts, Play, Plenty

Music, of all the arts, stands in a special region, unlit by any star but its own, and utterly without meaning. . . except its own.

Art, Music, Stands, Stars, Unlit, Utterly

Mozart's music is constantly escaping from its frame, because it cannot be contained in it.

Constantly, Contained, Escaping, Music, Music Is

I believe that man's noblest endowment is his capacity to change.

Believe, Change, Endowment, Men

What [Louis Armstrong] does is real, and true, and honest, and simple, and even noble. Every time this man puts his trumpet to his lips, even if only to practice three notes, he does it with his whole soul.

Armstrong, Honest, Men, Real, Simple

The key to the mystery of a great artist is that for reasons unknown, he will give away his energies and his life just to make sure that one note follows another. . . and leaves us with the feeling that something is right in the world.

Artist, Keys, Giving, Leaves, Key, Right

The 20th century has been a badly written drama, from the beginning.

Badly, Century, Drama, Has Beens, Written

A liberal is a man or a woman or a child who looks forward to a better day, a more tranquil night, and a bright, infinite future.

Bright, Children, Day, Men, Night, Woman

Music, because of its specific and far-reaching metaphorical powers, can name the unnamable and communicate the unknowable.

Metaphorical, Names, Reaching, Specific, Unknowable, Unnamable

Bernstein has been disclosing musical secrets that have been well known for over 400 years.

Disclosing, Musical, Secret, Years

When I am with composers, I say I am a conductor. When I am with conductors, I say I am a composer.

Composer, Composers, Conductor, Conductors, Say

. . . we can all shut-up and go back to our caves.

Back, Caves, Shut Up

You can sit there, tense and worried, freezing the creative energies, or you can start writing something. It doesn't matter what. In five or ten minutes, the imagination will heat, the tightness will fade, and a certain spirit and rhythm will take over.

Creative, Imagination, Tense, Worried, Writing

I think it is time we learned the lesson of our century: that the progress of the human spirit must keep pace with technological and scientific progress, or that spirit will die. It is incumbent on our educators to remember this; and music is at the top of the spiritual must list. When the study of the arts leads to the adoration of the formula (heaven forbid), we shall be lost. But as long as we insist on maintaining artistic vitality, we are able to hope in man

Music, Spiritual, Art, Technological, Top

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